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V\\B 


1?:..BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


CENSORED 

By  the  Postmaster  General 


Here  is  "A  Good  Soldier,"  by  Jack  London,  which  has 
aroused  the  militarists  of  this  nation  to  the  extent  that 
Postmaster  General  Burleson  has  barred  from  the  mails 
envelopes  containing  this  article.  The  APPEAL  TO  REASON 
was  threatened  with  a  "fraud  order"  if  it  persisted  in 
sending  envelopes  through  the  mails  containing  London's 
article.  The  Postmaster  General  did  not  even  give  the 
APPEAL  a  chance  in  the  courts.  He  said:  "Either  stop 
circulating  'A  Good  Soldier'  on  envelopes  or  we  will 
close  up  your  doors  by  refusing  to  deliver  a  single  piece 
of  mail  to  you."  So  in  "Free  America"  the  APPEAL  has 
been  forced  by  a  War  Censor  to  take  this  means  to  circu- 
late Jack  London's  criticism  of  the  soldier  profession: 


*    *    *    * 


A  Good  Soldier 

BY  JACK  LONDON 

Young  man,  the  lowest  aim  in  your  life  is 
to  be  a  good  soldier.  The  good  soldier  never 
tries  to  distinguish  right  from  wrong.  He  never 
thinks;  never  reasons;  he  only  obeys.  If  he  is 
ordered  to  fire  on  his  fellow  citizens,  on  his 
friends,  on  his  neighbors,  on  his  relatives,  he 
obeys  without  hesitation.  If  he  is  ordered  to 


16 

fire  down  a  crowded  street  when  the  poor  are 
clanioring  for  bread,  he  obeys,  and  sees  the 
gray  hairs  of  age  stained  with  red  and  the 
life-tide  gushing  from  the  breasts  of  women, 
feeling  neither  remorse  nor  sympathy.  If  he 
is  ordered  off  as  one  of  a  firing  squad  to  exe- 
cute a  hero  or  benefactor,  he  fires  without  hesi- 
tation, though  he  knows  the  bullet  will  pierce 
the  noblest  heart  that  ever  beat  in  human 
breast. 

A  good  soldier  is  a  blind,  heartless,  soul- 
less, murderous  machine.  He  is  not  a  man. 
He  is  not  even  a  brute,  for  brut.es  only  kill  in 
self-defense.  All  that  is  human  in  him,  all  that 
is  divine  in  him,  all  that  constitutes  the  man, 
has  been  sworn  away  when  he  took  the  enlist- 
ment oath.  His  mind,  conscience,  aye,  his  very 
soul,  are  in  the  keeping  of  his  officer. 

No  man  can  fall  lower  than  a  soldier  —  it 
is  a  depth  beneath  which  we  cannot  go. 


[If  you  want  to  know  more  abo\it  Socialism  or  how  to  join  the 
Socialist  party,  write  to  the  Appeal  to  Reason,  Girard,  Kan.  Th« 
Appeal  to  Reason  is  a  weekly  paper  and  costs  50  cents  a  year.] 


Hollinger  Corp. 
pH8.5 


Hollinger  Corp. 
pH8.5 


